H-1B visa

Thousands of recent grads awaiting H-1B visas are losing their jobs

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Immigration attorneys expect thousands of recently graduated international students who've been hired by U.S. companies to be forced out of their jobs today due to delays in processing H-1B high-skilled worker visas and strict new policies imposed by the Trump administration.

Why it matters: Recent grads are allowed to remain in the U.S. if they've applied for H-1B employment visas. But they are no longer allowed to work while their applications are pending, likely making it difficult to afford to stay.

"The best case scenario is that the failure to get all of these applications processed by October 1 was a mistake. The worst case is that it was intentional. In either case, there's a lot of unnecessary human carnage inflicted on people who have not violated any point of immigration law."

What's happening: Any student with an expired F-1 student visa who continues working will risk accruing "unlawful presence." This could result in a ban from the U.S. for various amounts of time, according to new, strict policies introduced by the Trump administration earlier this year.

The only alternative to waiting jobless while an H-1B visa is pending is to re-enroll in certain classes and maintain student visa status. But that also is costly.

One potential backfire: International students have "dumped a lot of money into our current university system that's starving for funds," often with the expectation of finding employment, Katie Fields, a manager for international recruiting at a large staffing agency, told Axios.

"In a round-about way, it's going to ruin some of the reputations for these schools that have been marketing to these students."

How we got here:

Immigrants with expired F-1 visas or recent tech graduates who worked under the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program were given an extension — known as a "cap gap" — until October 1. This allowed them to continue working while their employment visa was pending.

The Trump administration also eliminated "premium processing" — a system that allowed visas to be fast-tracked in time-sensitive cases for an extra fee.

But U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is dealing with a long backlog of cases, according to a spokesperson. It failed to process all of the cap-gap visas by the deadline, even though it said ending premium processing would allow the agency to expedite their review.

“If the government can’t process an application in six months then it should consider allowing companies to pay $1200 to speed things along."

Apple, Cisco, IBM speak out against Trump's immigration policies

Photo: Photofusion/UIG via Getty Images

Chief executives from top U.S. companies including Apple, Cisco, IBM, Pepsico and AT&T sent a letter to Homeland Security this week expressing their "serious concern about changes in immigration policy," arguing the changes are "unfair and discourage talented and highly skilled individuals from pursuing career opportunities in the United States," according to a copy provided to Axios.

The big picture: The Trump administration has imposed several new policies and released memos that have made it much more difficult for highly skilled foreign workers to obtain H-1B visas — and much easier immigration officials to deport foreign workers who become ineligible. Many tech companies in particular rely on these foreign workers to fill the labor and skills gap in the U.S.

On the other side: The administration and advocates for cutting immigration levels have often accused employers of taking advantage of the H-1B visa to find cheaper labor instead of hiring Americans.

Labor Department investigators have been probing tech companies for abuse of employment visas. They recently concluded that Cisco Systems, which employed 1,600 immigrant workers last year, had been favoring immigrants for job openings and paying them less than American workers, Bloomberg Law reported this week.

A Cisco spokesperson told Axios the story is "factually incorrect. Visa holders are paid on the same basis as US citizens and permanent residents."

Key players: The companies that sent the letter to DHS are all a part of Business Roundtable, an influential group that represents many of the largest companies in the U.S. Key executives who signed the letter include Cisco System's Chuck Robbins, Apple's Tim Cook, IBM's Ginni Rometty, S&P Global Douglas L. Peterson, JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, Salesforce's Marc Benioff and PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi.